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Whisper-wind Comb

The Dewott leaned forward, resting his arm on the barrier as he tried to get a closer look at just what was going on up inside the temple. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the second Koa put his hand against the barrier too. Was it being impeded same as he was? Could it be impeded in such a fashion? His attention was quickly dragged back to the scene in front of him.

Portals in the sky, ringed by red chains. The void in his stomach, the place where shadow gathered, gnawed at his insides as he watched it. He didn’t need to ask what was going on to know it was bad. He was watching a world on the precipice of its end.

Koa said:
"Try... get out of there. Ignore-"

He glanced back at the storm behind him. The world beyond this peak might as well not exist. He clenched his fist, and looked back at the human standing beside him.

“You know, Koa, once upon a time, I was in a situation not unlike this one,” he said, more to the human than to the Electrike. For him, there hadn’t been a happy ending that day. “Koa… When you were confronted by the end of your world on the summit of Mt. Coronet, what did you do?”
 
“You know, Koa, once upon a time, I was in a situation not unlike this one. Koa… When you were confronted by the end of your world on the summit of Mt. Coronet, what did you do?”
"Nothing..." The wind howled, and it was impossible to tell if the words had come from the Electrike Koa or the human one next to Archie. But the bitter shame in his words was plain.

"...please... it's not real..."

Whose voice was that? The sight before Archie shifted and distorted again. Now he could see silhouettes of pokemon within the portals, bound by the chains. Their forms were hazy and indistinct but enough to recognize vaguely, to know these had to be some kind of legendary pokemon. Before them, the scene seemed to grow still, briefly frozen in time, like someone had hit pause on a show. A man, a boy, and chains.

Beside Archie, both Koa's gaze was fixed on the figure of the leader...
 
“Nothing, huh?” The Dewott hummed. There was no judgment to his tone. If anything, Archie sounded almost wistful.

He leaned back on his heels, paws in his coat pockets, and looked up at those portals again. The shapes within were ensnared by the red chains. He didn’t know these Pokemon specifically; he probably didn’t need to.

“As for me, I ran,” he said, the chuckled, bitterly. “I guess that makes me a coward. There was nothing I could have done, but… Thinking about that last day still fills me with shame. Sometimes I wonder, if I could go back and do it all again, what would I do differently?”

He glanced up at the human beside him, “How about you? Would you do things different, the second time around?”
 
Pressure. Chains tightened and the enslaved legends thrashed and cried out noiselessly. Movement from the figures. Voices. Indistinct, muffled. In the background a crackling murmur. Was that the TV from earlier?

Beside Archie, Koa seemed stuck, caught in some war between emotions. Strangely, he appeared younger now. Or perhaps, he had always been? "Can't... st... him. N... gh. Why..." The words were distorted. Hard to hear. Had he heard Archie or was it just a phatasm like before? His gaze was fixated on the scene playing out. On the figure at the head of it all. of all the figures, his was the clearest.

"Archie... -ungeon... tricking us... -.. playing games. -find...way out..."
If he'd heard anything of what Archie said, it was hard to tell. The voice sounded confident, but was it a mask?​

How much was real or memory or trick? Dungeon deception or a vision? The scene felt like a movie still, playing towards some inevitable end. The pressure was almost smothering, no longer just pressing down but ever so slightly pulling. Like standing at the lip of a yawning slope, the world bending towards one singular point.

That figure...

He turned around, hands folded behind him, studying, his gaze glossing over Archie to land on Koa. For a moment, it felt as time and space came to standstill. His gaze cold and analytical, evaluating Koa. Then he reached out with his hand and beckoned to him.
 
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It was starting to seem almost like the whole thing was breaking down around him. The crackling static-y noise went well with the snow that hemmed him in. Like he was trapped in the middle of an old analog broadcast. Koa wanted him to find a way out, so the Dewott reached out again, and felt the barrier between him and the temple. The only way forward was blocked, he couldn’t go back the way he came either. The only thing left to him was to watch.

“It’s okay if you’re scared,” Archie said, looking over to the now younger looking human beside him. He traced the boy’s vision to the man at the center of it all. The one standing before the chained and thrashing Legendaries. There was nothing behind that man’s eyes. The Dewott pushed on the barrier again.

“Seems like he wants you to join him,” he said. “Did you?”
 
Soft. Strained. "No."

Behind the screen, the man still stood, waiting. Expectant.

Almost frozen, and yet there was the slightest ruffle of spiked hair and moving clothes. A moment, caught in time. Had this actually happened like this? The world contorted around the figure, yawning and stretching, bending around the him. With a still impassive expression, the mysterious figure remained, waiting.

More pressure, tugging, drawing towards that centerpoint. Inevitable. Koa reached out, briefly brushing the barrier. It felt thinner now. He looked torn, as if he were about to step forward, as if he couldn't stop. The figure watched.

"...need to end this. -testing us. Find... break the-"
 
Koa said:
"...need to end this. -testing us. Find... break the-"

Break what? The Dewott knocked on the barrier again. Could he break this? With the snow and the noise, it almost could be a big TV screen. If he conceptualized it like that, breaking it should be well and truly possible. Well, there was only one way to find out. The Dewott drew one of his scalchops, and focused. He summoned up the orange, Fighting Type energy, extending it from the edge of the blade. It seemed only suitable.

“You know, if you don’t like what’s on, you could always try changing the channel.”

The Dewott swung.

Archie used Sacred Sword!
 
CRASH!

Cracks spiderwebbed the invisible screen, scattering the image of the man, Luxray trainer and enslaved legends into a thousand microimages. And then it shattered. Fragments of nothing fell to the snowy ground.

The barrier was gone, but for some reason the scene before them had changed.

Chains still controlled the legends but gone was the doppleganger Luxray trainer. No longer was the leader facing them, hand outstreched. Instead his back was to them, appraising his work with cold satisfaction, as that was how he'd been all along. And still, Koa's gaze remained fixed on that figure, who now ignored him.

Was this another trick, or somehow the real version? Why had it changed?

Around them, the wind howled. Koa started forward, as if to call out, but the Figure didn't move. For some reason he remained at the center of it all...
 
So behind the barrier, the scene had been different all along, had it? Interesting. But what caused that difference? Was one version more true than the other? Were they both false? Or were they both true, from a certain perspective? Did it ultimately matter?

He strode forward, drawing his second scalchop. With some focusing, he brought his Razor Shell back to the forefront of his mind, and called the blue Water Type energy to his second shell. The Dewott eyed the two women warily, wondering if they’d try to impede his progress the same way the doppelganger Koa had. He was ready for it if they were.

“You know, someone really smart once told me: There’s no such thing as a universal objective truth. Truth always comes in the context of a story. How and when a truth is revealed matters. How that truth is framed matters. So I have to ask,” he clashed his blades together with a flourish, glancing from the redhead, to the purple haired woman, to the back of the spike haired man at the center of it all. “What story are you trying to tell me?”
 
Neither of the two women made to stop him, or even acknowledged him. They seemed unaffectd, utterly focused on the unfolding scene.

The Figure spoke, his voice flat. Impersonal. "A perfect world, free from meaningless human strife. From flaw. From imperfection." Talking to himself? It didn't sound like he was talking to Archie... Perhaps reciting a mantra...

At the declaration, Koa stiffened. Bothered. Wounded. Yet the Figure made no effort to acknowledge him. Not as if he didn't know, but as if Koa were no factor. And yet there was a tension, like an invisible chain snaking between them, shackling Koa. Binding.

And yet there was a tremor in the air of the dungeon. If there was a story to be told, what was it? Trick or not, there had to be a reason for the experiences. A truth.
 
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From the top of the stairs, Archie looked from the man, to Koa, and back again. What was important for him to be taking away here. What context was this story being told to him in? It couldn’t be anything the man himself was saying – he might as well have been babbling nonsense. It couldn’t be anything about the women or the Legendaries, they were all hazy and indistinct, rough around the edges. Only Koa and the man himself were in sharp focus. There was some kind of connection between them, then, something that Koa considered shameful enough that he would try to convince Archie to look away from.

“Koa, the man who summoned the Legendaries on Mt. Coronet. Who was he to you?”
 
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